The top 10 movie plot holes

It's a rare movie that has no plot holes at all. Even movies
nearly everyone likes, like Star Wars (I speak of Episode
IV, in case that's unclear), are occasionally rife with them. Of
course, for many geeks -- myself included -- part of the fun of
seeing a movie is identifying and discussing its plot holes
afterward.

Here, then, are ten plot holes from geeky movies that, in my
judgment, are ones that are easy to miss -- even though some of
them seem pretty obvious once you think about them. Please feel
free to add your own favourite plot holes in the comments, and
check out the first and second lists of plot holes (AKA "unanswered questions") we've
published on GeekDad before. (Note: The list below contains
spoilers for the movies listed, out of necessity.)

10.The Matrix The machines are keeping humans alive for their body
heat, right? But they also have nuclear fusion reactors, and (while
I haven't run the numbers) I'd be willing to bet that a single
fusion reactor would generate more net energy in an hour than all
the humans on today's Earth would in a day. Plus, fusion reactors
are considerably less likely to try to escape, so it's pretty clear
the only reason the humans are still around is so the movie can
exist. Oh, and while we're at it, how come the simulated world
everyone's living in still has computers? Wouldn't it be much
smarter to remove the computers, thus significantly reducing the
likelihood of someone like Neo making an appearance?

9.Jurassic Park The scientists clone dinosaurs from the DNA in the blood in a preserved
prehistoric mosquito. The problem is that blood cells in many
animals (humans included) don't carry DNA, and when they do they
don't carry nearly enough that the frog DNA they use to fill in the
gaps wouldn't dominate the bits of dinosaur DNA. Plus, of course,
they would have no way to determine which DNA strands came from
which dinosaur -- and which from the mosquito itself!

8.Spider-Man 2
Doctor Octavius is trying to find Spider-Man, and Harry
suggests he talk to his good buddy Peter Parker, because Pete is
always taking photos of Spider-Man. Doc Ock promptly finds Peter
and Mary Jane at a coffee shop, and introduces himself by throwing
a car at them through the window, which would certainly have killed
them if Peter hadn't been Spider-Man, sensed the danger, and pulled
himself and MJ to the floor. But Doc Ock has no idea that Peter is
Spider-Man, so why would he try to kill the person he wants help
from?

7.Superman&Superman II It's just astonishing how Superman conveniently acquires new powers whenever his
already-impressive selection of powers is inadequate to the task.
In the first film, Lois Lane dies in the massive earthquake caused
by the nuclear missile hitting the San Andreas fault. Superman,
understandably distraught, suddenly and miraculously not only has
the ability to turn back time by flying around the Earth really
fast a lot of times, but somehow knows that he has
that ability, despite it never having been mentioned previously.
Then, at the end of the second film, the same thing happens again
-- only this time it's an amnesia kiss. How exactly is he supposed
to be able to remove the memory that Clark Kent is Superman, while
leaving other memories intact? It's never explained at all.

6.Star Trek II&Star Trek III At the end of STII, the Genesis device
creates a planet out of the Mutara nebula and the USS Reliant,
right? And that's fine as far as it goes, because scientists do in
fact think that planets form out of nebulae. There's just one tiny
little question, though: Where did the sun for the planet to orbit
come from? It sure wasn't there before the device detonated, and if
the device could create a star from a nebula, you'd think Carol
Marcus would've mentioned it.

5.Batman Begins
Ra's al Ghul (AKA Ducard) and the Scarecrow use the microwave
emitter they stole from Wayne Enterprises to vaporise all the water
in Gotham City, thus making people inhale the toxin contained
therein. A creative idea, to be sure, except that human beings are
60-75% water (depending on age and other factors). So everybody in
Gotham should be boiled to death in their own tissues.

4.Star Wars Episode III: Revenge
of the Sith The final, climactic battle between Obi-Wan and
Anakin rages all over and around the river of lava on Mustafar.
Then it ends when Obi-Wan leaps onto the bank and tells Anakin he's
lost because Obi-Wan has the high ground. He turns out to be right,
as Anakin leaps into Obi-Wans flashing lightsaber. Seriously,
though, how does being on high ground matter when you're both
wizards who can levitate objects with your minds, leap incredibly
high, and move astonishingly fast?

3.The Princess Bride When the Brute Squad is cleaning up the Thieves'
Forest, Fezzik finds Inigo and nurses him back to sobriety. He
tells him about Vizzini's death and, more importantly, about "the
existence of Count Rugen, the six-fingered man." That's great,
except… how does Fezzik know Rugen is the six-fingered man? We see
Westley notice Rugen's extra digit, but he's knocked out and taken
directly to the Pit of Despair, so he clearly had no chance to tell
Fezzik. And even if Fezzik had seen Rugen, is it really likely he'd
have noticed? Fezzik isn't that bright or that observant.
(Incidentally, I looked this bit up in the book, and it doesn't
explain how Fezzik knew, either.)

2.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire This is a problem in the book as well, but it's in
the movie so it counts. Barty Crouch, Jr., disguised as Mad-Eye
Moody, arranges for the Triwizard Cup to be a portkey to take Harry
to the graveyard in Little Hangleton so that he can be used to
bring Voldemort back to life and then killed. He's in the guise of
a teacher at the school, so he had any number of opportunities to
make a portkey out of, well, pretty much anything that he could be
sure Harry would touch -- Harry's schoolbooks, his shoes, whatever.
It's been argued that Voldemort wanted to keep his existence a
secret and make it look like Harry perished during the task, but
really, having Harry just disappear without a trace wouldn't be any
more suspicious. And, incidentally, why did he make the cup a
two-way portkey? It's been established that most portkeys are
one-use, one-way only. Why not make this portkey one of those, so
that Harry had no way to escape?

Comments

The matrix one could plausibly be the explained by a lack of hydrogen or other material suitable for fusion, unlikely as it is.In Inception, when they're driving through the streets on the first level, nothing wakes Arthur up, including the intended kick as they first go off the bridge.

Chris

Nov 17th 2010

The matrix one could plausibly be the explained by a lack of hydrogen or other material suitable for fusion, unlikely as it is.In Inception, when they're driving through the streets on the first level, nothing wakes Arthur up, including the intended kick as they first go off the bridge.

Chris

Nov 17th 2010

I don't really think the Empire 'winning' would have bothered Yoda all that much. He was in exile on a desolate swamp planet -- the Empire wouldn't have gone searching out for him, and Yoda dies in the next film any way.Besides, he really shouldn't have helped Luke because the Empire were really the good guys!

Michael Davies

Nov 17th 2010

Well, Yoda I'd imagine was worried about Luke going all Vader on him after his last experience of training someone who was "too old".Also, did you not see the Matrix: Reloaded? The machines WANT the One to exist to restore order to the chaotic system. The power thing is clearly scientific bollocks as humans don't generate any energy; any energy gleamed from the humans would have been fed to them previously.

Daniel

Nov 17th 2010

No, in Matrix they kept humans alive for the electricity their body produced.

arkoudas joe

Nov 21st 2010

Hmm, did this really had to be on 2 pages?.Alien: the first encounter is... on another spaceship of unknown origin seemingly from another species of aliens. So, where did that came from and has it perhaps distributed more aliens (as in the title species) across the galaxy?

Caesar Tjalbo

Nov 22nd 2010

The Spider Man 2 one isn't so much a plot hole as a prime example of how bad the film was.

Michael

Nov 22nd 2010

In the Goblet of Fire the people previously killed emerging from the wand reactivate the portkey, which in the film &amp; book is why it glows again. You see the cup fade and go dark one he arrives in the graveyard. Bit obvious really

Owen

Nov 27th 2010

All great stuff but then you are talking about fantasy movies.....you can do anything you like in fantasy. Haven't looked recently but I wonder what plot holes there are in 2001 a space odyssey? That's the most realistic science FICTION I can think of.

Dave

Nov 29th 2010

In the Matrix it was originally intended that the humans were there not as a power source but to harness their collective brain power to create the Matrix in the first place. The executives producing the movie forced the writers to change that point, thinking it too cerebral for the audience, thus the very improbable idea of humans serving as batteries was introduced.And as far as the plot holes in Episode 3 go, a much bigger one in that scene is how Anakin and Obi Wan are dueling around in the midst of all that lava and aren't burned to a crisp by the superheated air surrounding them. Hollywood frequently underestimates how hot lava is.

Kenoshi

Dec 1st 2010

Both reptile and bird blood cells are nucleated (contain DNA) so it's highly likely that dinosaurs did as well.

Al

Dec 3rd 2010

Regarding the obi-wan anakin fight..... your point about the "wizard" abilities of the jedi making higher ground pointless is very debatable.I would like to point out that BOTH of them had these powers, in this case any slight advantage such as higher ground becomes important.if it was it had been a non-jedi in obi-wans place your point would be justified.Just my 2 cents

Tranq

Dec 4th 2010

#4 isn't actually a plot hole. Whether or not "high ground" is relevant in a jedi duel is beside the point. Obi Wan told Vader, "you've lost", and baited him into making a risky backflip over him.Sure, Vader could have said, "Nah, I'm cool down here." and the duel would have continued. But this was actually about the psychology of the combatants, not the slope of the terrain.

Paul

Dec 10th 2010

Re Spiderman 2, obviously he was attacking Peter Parker to make Spiderman appear. As if he'd just ask him, "Hey, where's Spiderman so I can kill him".Your list is a plot-hole!

James

Dec 16th 2010

Poorly written article, fickle arguments. One would imagine the writer of this piece spends much time fantasising about the feel of penis glands in his mouth before greedily swallowing much of the tramp in questions load. What a wanker.